the strong do as they wish, and the weak suffer as they must

Archive for October, 2008

How was it allowed to happen? How did politics in the United States come to be dominated by people who make a virtue out of ignorance? Was it charity that has permitted mankind’s closest living relative to spend two terms as president? How did Sarah Palin, Dan Quayle and other such gibbering numbskulls get to where they are? How could Republican rallies in 2008 be drowned out by screaming ignoramuses insisting that Barack Obama is a Muslim and a terrorist?

Despite spending more than $1 billion between 1999 and 2004, the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP — the drug czar’s office) National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign has failed to demonstrate any measurable positive effects — and it some cases, it may even have made youths more likely to use drugs, a new study has found.

Excellent! Now go out and create art and enjoy yourselves.

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WASHINGTON — Montana gunsmith Dan Cooper has been ousted as chief executive of the rifle company that bears his name after pressure from gun owners who are angry that he is supporting Democrat Barack Obama.

Cooper, founder and part owner of Cooper Firearms, told USA TODAY in a story published Tuesday that he has voted for Republicans for most of his life, but he is backing Obama “probably because of the war. And also because the Republican Party has moved so far right in recent years.” Cooper said he was attracted to the Democrat’s message about “the retooling of America, which involves the building of middle-class jobs and helping American small business be competitive with those overseas.”

Posted in Points to Ponder | Comments Off on Cooper Firearms ousts founder over Obama support

The Department of Justice will not require Ohio to disclose the names of voters whose registration applications did not match other government databases, according to two people familiar with discussions between state and federal lawyers.

The decision comes about a week after an unusual request from President Bush asking the department to investigate the matter and roughly two weeks after the Supreme Court dismissed a case involving the flagged registration applications.

Federal law requires states to verify voter registration applications with a government database like those used for driver’s licenses or Social Security cards. Names that do not match are flagged for further verification. But the law provides little guidance on how these flagged registrations should be handled and discrepancies corrected.

Ohio Republicans had sought the lists to challenge voters, but the Ohio Secretary of State, Jennifer Brunner, a Democrat, refused the request, saying that numerical errors or misspellings are the probable reason for most of the discrepancies. Forcing these voters to cast provisional ballots would possibly disenfranchise thousands of eligible voters, she said, since these ballots are easier to disqualify.

Audience members escorted out of Sen. John McCain’s, R-Ariz., campaign event in Cedar Falls questioned why they were asked to leave Sunday’s rally even though they were not protesting.

David Zarifis, director of public safety for the University of Northern Iowa, said McCain staffers requested UNI police assist in escorting out “about four or five” people from the rally prior to McCain’s speech.

Zarifis said while the people who were taken out weren’t protesting or causing problems, McCain’s staff were worried they would during the speech.

So I guess Iraq wasn’t the only “pre-emptive strike” McCain supports. Moron.

So, the neocon dream of transforming Iraq into a land-based aircraft carrier for carrying out military strikes against Iran, Syria and other perceived enemies appears to be ending, regardless of whether neocon favorite, McCain, succeeds President Bush, or Obama does with his plan to remove U.S. combat forces over 16 months.

Under the latest version of the status-of-forces agreement, the only option for carrying out the neocon plan would seem to be the raw imposition of American imperial dominance, a move that would meet widespread international resistance and likely rekindle the insurrection inside Iraq.

The far more likely outcome in Iraq is the gradual withdrawal of U.S. forces, with Washington left with little to show for its investment in blood and treasure.

AUSTRALIA will join China in implementing mandatory censoring of the internet under plans put forward by the Federal Government.

The revelations emerge as US tech giants Google, Microsoft and Yahoo, and a coalition of human rights and other groups unveiled a code of conduct aimed at safeguarding online freedom of speech and privacy.

The government has declared it will not let internet users opt out of the proposed national internet filter.

The plan was first created as a way to combat child pronography and adult content, but could be extended to include controversial websites on euthanasia or anorexia.

Communications minister Stephen Conroy revealed the mandatory censorship to the Senate estimates committee as the Global Network Initiative, bringing together leading companies, human rights organisations, academics and investors, committed the technology firms to “protect the freedom of expression and privacy rights of their users“.

By taking those rights away. Clever, you Aussies. You must be proud to join China in being freedom-stomping d-bags. Kudos.

Seven more days of candidates pandering, talking heads exploring even further up their own ass in search of something more trivial than the last segment to blather on about, seven more days until at least this stage of our national meltdown is done.

Fearful they should be. As immersed in this race as I’ve been over the last year, year and a half, one thing has always struck me as incredible, and that is the complete ignorance of the GOP as to exactly how much they are loathed. Hated. Despised. This country- and the rest of the planet- don’t want a different version of you- we want you gone.

The list could continue but we all know it all too well. Greed. Incompetence. Fraud. Treason. Take your pick. The last eight years, to anyone with a brain, or a heart, has been hellish. Its Alice in Wonderland, but with tanks. And orange jumpsuits. It’s our most likely drunk vice president shooting a man in the fucking face, and getting to sleep it off before he meets with law enforcement. How perfect of a damn metaphor do you need for the last eight years?

Sadly, the only candidate worth much of anything vanished long ago, that being of course Ron Paul. He was the only candidate who understood that our nation had long strayed from its origins, betrayed its ideals, and scarcely resembled “A more perfect union” anymore. But of course we can’t have that, we can’t have accountability or reason, but rather two-fisted greed and brazen stupidity to rule the day.

Of the candidates left, there is only one choice, the man with the funny name and the wrong skin. Not only does he appear poised to completely wipe the floor with that doddering old hypocrite McCain, but the Democratic party possibly could get 60 seats in the Senate, a prospect that at least one soon to be unemployed GOP senator finds frightening:

In North Carolina, where Senator Elizabeth Dole seems set to loose, Republicans are running adverts that appear to take an Obama victory for granted, warning that the Democrat will have a “blank check” if her rival Kay Hagen wins. “These liberals want complete control of government in a time of crisis,” the narrator says. “All branches of Government. No checks and balances.”

Welcome to the last eight years, bitch. Welcome to what the rest of the world has been infuriated at, terrified of, and now rather benumbed to. But I can’t see Obama becoming the tyrant that Bush reveled in, but lord knows the tools are there should he decide thats the way. On the gun boards I frequent, the single issue for those voters is that Obama will take away their guns, period. And as accustomed as we’ve become to a President riding roughshod over the Constitution, they all imagine that once his hand leaves the bible from swearing in, he’s going to sign an executive order calling for the immediate confiscation of firearms. Its rather amusing to watch as they slowly begin to realize that giving one person unlimited power is perhaps not such a grand notion. But thankfully he’ll have a few more pressing issues to attend to prior to buying back all our guns with baked goods. Like the illegal wars. The economy. You know, big things that the other guys fornicated the pooch on.

Seven days. In seven days we can stop giving a crap about a corrupt idiot from Alaska and her “First Dude” secessionist husband, or the old man with the Aliens-like hump on his face, and we can begin to see a future without a member of the Bush/Clinton dynasty (they are no different, no reason to pluralize) leaving their stench in our collective air. No, Obama is not the perfect candidate for our time, we left that man on the side of the road long ago. But he is perhaps exactly what we need at this juncture. Either he will be a transformative president, as many have thought. Or he will be an utter failure, leading to perhaps a legitimate third party candidate in 2012.

Either way, he is our future. Seven days. And once November 4th is in the books, we only have to completely duct-tape Bush and Cheney and toss them in the Rose Garden, in order they don’t nuke Iran, call out the Army in the streets, or pardon themselves. (All of which could occur, btw).